EckerNet.Com

My employer provides a sort of a daily summary of the news from around our industry each morning. Today I saw this:

U.S., Japan Consider Floating Runway: Japan and the United States are considering building a floating runway off southwestern Japan to ease noise pollution caused by night practice landings of U.S. military planes, an Aug. 28 report said. The runway would be sited about 2.5 miles away from Iwakune Marine Corps Air Station, Japan, in Yamaguchi prefecture, 440 miles southwest of Tokyo, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said. The two governments plan to include the proposal in their interim report on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan to be drafted in October, the newspaper said. (Agence France-Presse)

Yeah, I had the same reaction. What a dumb idea. For all sorts of reasons. What happens if you miss the runway?? How do you defend it from terrorists?? How do you refuel?? You’d have to have basic maintenance facilities…how do you put those out there?? Who does the air traffic control?? How do you generate power? Things like that. I doubt it’s to practice carrier landings either, because from what I’ve read they are a drastically different concept.

But probably the biggest one question, how do you keep it stable?? These are land based planes…they don’t have a tailhook to catch any arresting wires. Plus this is being done at night. And whatever you use it has to be able to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes and other not good things like that.

One of my co-workers theorized you could apply the same methods an oil rig uses. After all, oil rigs don’t break free right??

It seems Katrina settled that for us, by providing us at least 20 examples that yes, in fact, oil rigs can break free.

At least 20 oil rigs and platforms are missing in the Gulf of Mexico and a ruptured gas pipeline is on fire after Hurricane Katrina tore through the region, a US Coast Guard official said.

“We have confirmed at least 20 rigs or platforms missing, either sunk or adrift, and one confirmed fire where a rig was,” Petty Officer Robert Reed of the Louisiana Coast Guard told AFP.

Ok so back to the basics….how do you secure a runway, if you can’t even secure a oil rig. At least you don’t have to try to land on an oil rig.

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl “Will you marry me?”

The girl said “No.”

And the guy lived happily ever after and went fishing a lot.

THE END

This may be a bit insensitive but why am I hearing about hundreds of people sitting atop the roof of their house in New Orleans waiting to be rescued?

All day long, rescuers in boats and helicopters pulled out shellshocked and bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. The Coast Guard said it has rescued 1,200 people by boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter baskets. They were brought by the truckload into shelters, some in wheelchairs and some carrying babies, with stories of survival and of those who didn’t make it.

Excuse me but didn’t the mayor of New Orleans give an evacuation order several days ago? And even if he didn’t…it’s a hurricane folks, it doesn’t just sneak up on you. Earthquakes, tornadoes, flash floods, landslides, yes. Hurricane, no.

Let’s look at their situation here: One of the biggest hurricanes ever is bearing down on you, your house is several feet below sea level and the mayor tells you to evacuate the city or else go to a shelter of last-resort. And what do apparently thousands of people do?? Stay put.

What the hell?

Now you’re trapped. You’ve placed not only yourselves but also the people who have to rescue your ass in mortal danger. And from the sound of it, many of the stranded end up dead.

Am I missing some fundamental piece of the puzzle??

I mean I understand wanting to stay and protect your property. But for days we’ve been hearing how New Orleans was going to be submerged in 20 feet of water. What were you expecting to do??

Poor? Sick? No transportation? Etc? Hospital or shelter of last-resort folks.

It’s a fucking hurricane. It’s not something to mess around with. Otherwise you end up dead. The lucky ones are sitting in the heat on a roof, tired, thirsty and exhausted hoping someone will find them in time.

Please someone tell me I’m over simplifying things and tell me how I am doing so. Then I can just feel like an insensitive ass rather than sitting here wondering what the hell is going on.

UPDATE 9/1/05 : The Director of FEMA, Michael Brown, had this to say about the situation:

Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.

“Unfortunately, that’s going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings,” Brown told CNN.

“I don’t make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans,” he said.

“And to find people still there is just heart-wrenching to me because, you know, the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there.

“So, we’ve got to figure out some way to convince people that whenever warnings go out it’s for their own good,” Brown said. “Now, I don’t want to second guess why they did that. My job now is to get relief to them.”

Well at least I’m not the only one puzzled by the behavior of many people in New Orleans

The ink isn’t even dry and I’ve already seen and heard alot of people criticizing the Iraqi Constitution. My guess is that most of these people are simply just Bush haters who were going to hate any Iraqi Constitution regardless of it’s contents….unless of course that Constitution called American the root of all evil, then my guess is they would support it.

The thing that bugs me, however, is when I hear many of these criticisms it’s fairly obvious they have not read the damn thing. Instead they’ve trusted others (whom have an well established bias) to read it for them.

So before I hear any of you criticizing it, I want you to read it first.

And as a public service I provide the full text of the draft Iraqi Constitution. Differences added since August 22nd are noted in parentheses.

So without further ado:
(more…)

There was a man called him Jim, who lived near a river. Jim was a very religious man.

One day, the river rose over the banks and flooded the town, and Jim was forced to climb onto his porch roof. While sitting there, a man in a boat comes along and tells Jim to get in the boat with him. Jim says ‘No, that’s ok. God will take care of me.’ So, the man in the boat drives off.

The water rises, so Jim climbs onto his roof. At that time, another boat comes along and the person in that one tells Jim to get in. Jim replies, ‘No, that’s ok. God will take care of me.’ The person in the boat then leaves.

The water rises even more, and Jim climbs on his chimney. Then a helicopter comes and lowers a ladder. The woman in the helicopter tells Jim to climb up the ladder and get in. Jim tells her ‘That’s ok.’ The woman says ‘Are you sure?’ Jim says, ‘Yeah, I’m sure God will take care of me.

Finally, the water rises too high and Jim drowns. Jim gets up to Heaven and is face-to-face with God. Jim says to God ‘You told me you would take care of me! What happened?’

God replied ‘Well, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What else did you want?’

Oh no Hugo (not to be confused with Yugo) is going to cry to his mommythe UN. This is serious folks. Imagine the worse case scenario. The UN could hit us with a non-binding, unenforceable resolution!! Well,….unenforceable unless the US graciously enforced it for them…with France’s permission of course.

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Sunday he would lodge a complaint against the United States at the United Nations and other international bodies if the US government failed to act against television evangelist Pat Robertson, who had called for Chavez’s assassination.

Failed to act? Act on what? He hasn’t done anything. You see, we have this thing called Freedom of Speech. It allows even complete nutjobs to make a perfect ass of themselves for saying any damn fool thing they want. For more examples of this, please see Dick Durbin, Howard “The Scream” Dean, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll and Chuck Hagel

“If the US government does not take action that it must take, we will go to the United Nations and Organisation of American States to denounce the US government,” the Venezuelan leader said here.

Or you’ll denounce the US government?? Yeah, you’ve always struggled with doing that. Be careful or you might make a career of it.

He added he believed that by failing to act against Robertson, the United States was “giving protection to a terrorist, who is demanding the assassination of a legitimate president”.

A terrorist? Pat Robertson is a terrorist? I must have missed the sermon when he beheaded an atheist. Seriously though, we have got to get him a meeting with the heads of the DFL. We can’t even get them to call Zarqawi or Bin Laden a terrorist.

Robertson caused a diplomatic stir last Monday when he said on the air that if Chavez believed the United States was trying to kill him, “I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”

A diplomatic stir?? I wasn’t aware that Pat Robertson spoke for the United States. I’m not even sure he can claim to speak for a majority of Catholics, much less be an Ambassador of the United States.

He said Venezuela could use international treaties and conventions to demand the extradition of the television preacher.

Chavez pointed out he believed Robertson “should be sent to prison to serve as an example for the entire world”.

An example huh?? An example of what exactly??

…

Nevermind, I don’t want to know.

Humphrey Bogart You scored 33% Tough, 14% Roguish, 33% Friendly, and 19% Charming!

You’re the original man of honor, rough and tough but willing to stick your neck out when you need to, despite what you might say to the contrary. You’re a complex character full of spit and vinegar, but with a soft heart and a tender streak that you try to hide. There’s usually a complicated dame in the picture, someone who sees the real you behind all the tough talk and can dish it out as well as you can. You’re not easy to get next to, but when you find the right partner, you’re caring and loyal to a fault. A big fault. But you take it on the chin and move on, nursing your pain inside and maintaining your armor…until the next dame walks in. Or possibly the same dame, and of all the gin joints in all the world, it had to be yours. Co-stars include Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall, hot chicks with problems.

H/T : Doug of BoGold

Get your position here

3439 huh?? I’m fairly certain I have at least that many rounds of ammo. Just saying.

So everyone get your act together. You don’t want me as President do you!?!!

Mithras once opined that there must be a genetic connection between political outlook and humor:

Is there a genetic link between humor and political outlook? Is there just some birth defect that prevents right-wingers from being funny?

How your political leanings are determined at birth aren’t explored, but the apparent “lack” of conservative humor is.

Now normally I would be offended by this, as Frank J was. But when this post entitled “Republicans like to hit children” is an example of humor….well, then I’m glad I’m apparently suffering from some genetic defect, also known as conservatism.

With all the airline disasters lately, and the ongoing NWA strike, it’s a shame to see yet another incident in the aviation industry.

Superman really should teach his kids not to play in traffic.